As of December 2024, Safaricom Ethiopia reported a 245% increase in registered M-PESA customers, reaching 10.8 million, up from 3.1 million in December 2023. This growth was primarily driven by airtime purchases and cross-border money transfers.
Despite the surge in customer numbers, M-PESA’s total revenue declined by 74% to approximately $75,969 in the nine months leading up to December 2024, down from about $297,674 during the same period in 2023. The total transaction value decreased by 30% to around $113.95 million, while transaction volume increased by 1,023% to 124.8 million transactions.
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Safaricom introduced M-PESA in Ethiopia in August 2023, extending its M-PESA Global service to facilitate cross-border money transfers. Notably, about 20% of airtime top-ups were conducted through M-PESA, contrasting with Kenya’s preference for cash transfers and merchant payments via the platform.
In its quarterly update, Safaricom highlighted significant progress in Ethiopia’s mobile money sector since M-PESA’s launch. The number of 90-day active customers rose by 64% year-on-year to 7.1 million, with the average revenue per user increasing by 13% to approximately $1.00 in December 2024. Total service revenue grew by 79% to about $48.84 million, with mobile data contributing 76.4% of this revenue, amounting to approximately $37.32 million. Messaging revenue doubled to around $471,000, while voice revenue increased by 28% year-on-year to approximately $6.74 million.
The number of one-month active mobile data customers surged by 141% year-on-year to 4.4 million, with average data usage per chargeable customer increasing from 3.6GB in Q3 FY24 to 6.6GB in Q3 FY25, marking an 82.6% rise.
The number of M-PESA agents grew by 17% to 29,200, while merchants increased by 177% to 119,500. The company deployed 3,101 base stations, covering 48.5% of Ethiopia’s population, and aims to reach 55% coverage by June 2025.
Source: Kenyan Wallstreet
